Good morning and welcome to our final Foundations podcast this week. It’s been an absolute joy to bring some reflections from the scriptures over these past few days. Know that we love you all wonderful church family and are praying for you today.

REFLECTION:

Today’s passage is Matthew 25: 31-46. Let’s focus today on verse 40: “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

All week we’ve been poring over this teaching Jesus offers his disciples here – it’s complex, challenging and in places difficult to read but what does this mean for us today, right now in Lockdown 2.0, here in this amazing city of Sheffield. Today’s powerful passage, which in a sense ties together everything we’ve reflected on already this week, reminds us that in midst of a broken and hurting world, we are to live as a people who are marked by grace.

What we have in today’s reading is perhaps some of Jesus’ clearest and most challenging teaching on how we are to seek after justice – giving people what they deserve… and why it matters so greatly to God. In today’s passage, Jesus compares final judgement to the, at that time, common task of shepherds who had to identify and remove the goats from their flock. Rather disturbingly, on that day Jesus teaches, there will be many who claim to have believed in Him who ultimately will be rejected, the goats. And that His true sheep will be identified as those who have a heart for those in need.

It’s an incredibly challenging passage to reflect on for a number of reasons. Firstly, what Jesus is depicting here is a picture of God’s kingdom and how its citizens are to live. Presented in today’s reading is a staggeringly comprehensive list of how we are to live as disciples. Giving food or drink to the hungry – we might see this as providing emergency relief to those affected by disaster or war. The stranger – effectively the immigrants and refugees of our society being welcomed into friendship and community. The naked, an example would be the homeless, being clothed and provided for. The sick being cared for and the prisoners visited. This is the kind of community Jesus says that his true disciples will establish.

On Sunday we heard our interim leader Tom speak from the book of Jeremiah and how we are to ‘seek the peace and prosperity of the city’ God has called us to. If we ever needed a reminder of what this might look like…today’s passage paints a very compelling and beautiful picture of that.  As I reflected on Jesus’ words here,  I pictured one of my friends going into prisons to connect with young offenders. I pictured another member of our church family working with young people in crisis at an inclusion centre. I pictured countless members of our church community working for the NHS treating and caring for the sick. I pictured the Foodbank team providing generously gifted food for those who are hungry. One should never start a list!  This is just a snapshot of the church and what’s happening. And then beyond us at STC there are other churches, other disciples – many of whom we don’t see or know about – who either through their work or through voluntary projects are seeking to care for those most in need. Today we thank God for them and we pray for them.

But perhaps, the most powerful reminder this passage brings us is that, yes, we are to be a people who look out but first we must look in. Why? In verse 40, Jesus tells us that ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  You did for me…that’s the key phrase. Jesus is saying here…our attitude towards people in need ultimately reflects our attitude towards God. Whatever we do for those who are struggling, we do it for Christ.

We could easily look at this passage and think… If I’m honest – I don’t feel like I stack up here ...